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Drug to Treat Alcoholism Goal of UH Professor's ResearchNIH Awards Grant to Joydip Das to Find Where Alcohol Interacts in the Brain

September 20, 2010-Houston-

With the ultimate goal to discover a drug
that one day treats alcoholism, a University of Houston (UH) pharmacy professor
is working on pinpointing the mechanisms in the brain that respond to alcohol.

Joydip Das, a medicinal chemist and
pharmacologist in the UH College of Pharmacy, received a three-year, $450,000
grant this year from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In the end, his
team hopes their research will help lead them to a way to prevent people from
drinking in excess.

"Defining targets and elucidating the
molecular mechanism of their actions is needed for effective intervention," Das
said. "Once we understand the target, then we design drugs based on that
target."

More specifically, Das explained that
addictions are related to the brain, with protein kinase C (PKC) - particularly
of the PKCε subtype - being mainly expressed in the brain and playing a key
role in this process. Previous observations have indicated as much as a 75
percent reduction of alcohol drinking in mice using knockout technology,
demonstrating that knocking out the PKCε protein cuts desire.

He says that it's difficult to pinpoint where
alcohol acts and what its target is, so his team's objective is to find the
target and then determine how it interacts with ion channels to affect the
addiction.

"We're looking at the significance of the
interaction between the alcohol molecule and PKCε protein. How the alcohol
molecule binds with the target is the key," Das said. "This binding has
implications in addiction, so our intent is to design drugs to curb the desire
for more than a small amount of alcohol so that people stay away from excessive
drinking."

Trained at MIT and having worked in the anesthesia
department at Massachusetts General Hospital, Das has a particular interest in
this area, saying that alcohol also is an anesthetic, with PKCε being one of
its many targets.

"Our focus is brain chemistry. In our study,
we have seen that PKCε and alcohol interacts and have pinpointed the binding
side," he said. "Now, we must determine the molecular mechanism of the
interaction. To do so, we are looking at how those two interact in the neuronal
cells, which are the impulse-conducting cells in the brain."

The group's next steps will be to progress to
animal trials with the mouse model and then ultimately to clinical trials with
humans. Working with Das on this project are postdoctoral fellow Satyabrata
Pany and undergraduate student Khoi Ly.

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NOTE TO
JOURNALISTS: A high-resolution photo of Joydip Das and his
team is available to media by contacting Lisa Merkl.

About the University of Houston

The University of Houston is a comprehensive
national research institution serving the globally competitive Houston and Gulf
Coast Region by providing world-class faculty, experiential learning and strategic
industry partnerships. UH serves more than 38,500 students in the nation's
fourth-largest city, located in the most ethnically and culturally diverse
region of the country.

About the UH
College of Pharmacy

For more than 60 years, the University of
Houston College of Pharmacy has shaped aspiring pharmacists, scientists and
researchers. The college offers graduate
degrees in pharmacy administration, pharmacology and pharmaceutics, a
professional pharmacy degree and combined professional/graduate degrees. With facilities on the UH campus and in the
Texas Medical Center, the UH College of Pharmacy is accredited by the
Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education.